Intel ships 160GB SSD in 2.5-inch form factor

Intel has continued to expand on its solid state operations. First announced during Fall IDF in August, 2008, the X25-M and X18-M drives were first shipped in September. The rapid turnaround between September and December indicates Intel may have been sitting on this technology for a while.

An updated version in 1.8-inch form factor is expected next month. While pricing has not been given for the new drive, products are shipping right now. This 160GB model expands Intel’s current 80GB models which are available in X25-M 2.5-inch and X18-M 1.8-inch form factors.

SSD is definitely the future of mass storage barring some kind of alternate high-speed RAM technologies which also hold promise as permanent storage solutions, such as MRAM (Magnetoresistive RAM), which offer a permanent form of storage at speeds close to that of DRAM today.

It is believed that technologies like MRAM, which are permanent and high-speed, could ultimately lead to computers that do not have separate permanent storage and computer memory, but rather are simply a true “universal memory,” using the same locations to carry out computations as for permanent storage.

Speak Your Mind

http://www.mram-info/com Ron Mertens

Seagate’s CEO says that he believes MRAM will never compete with hard-discs, but rather with DRAM.Read more at MRAM-Info

Ron

http://www.geek.com/chips RickGeek

MRAM is non-volatile, meaning that while it will replace DRAM it will also be the only memory in a computer. Seagate’s CEO saying that doesn’t surprise me as they like to sell hard drives and SSDs. :)An eventual memory product like MRAM will overtake DRAM and hard drive storage, making it the long sought after “universal memory” allowing instant-on computers, complete storage of exactly where the machine was when it was “shut off,” etc.

http://www.mram-info.com Ron Mertens

I agree that MRAM has the potential to be the ‘Universal-memory’. The problem is that it is taking a long time to mature, and people are starting to lose their faith… and achieving higher-densities to compete with H/D or SSD keeps getting harder as H/D are getting bigger ;-)Ron